Reprieve for Sarabjit will enhance Indo-Pak ties: Burney

Published: Tuesday, April 8, 2008, 19:23 [IST]

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New Delhi, Apr 8 : Pakistan's former Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney said here today that reprieve for an Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who is facing death sentence in Pakistan's prison will enhance ties between the two nations.

"I have been actively pursuing the case of Singh," Burney said.

Sarabjit has been on death row since the Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected his petition for mercy in March 2006. He has been accused of having played a major role in serial blasts across Pakistan, which claimed at least 14 lives in 1991.

"The issue is whether the evidences confirm Sarabjit's involvement. There is some confusion about the name, but apart from all this, he has spent 18 years as a death-row prisoner. I will request Pakistan's President to consider the case," he said.

"If settlement of this case can bring both the nations together, then I think he should be forgiven," Burney told reporters after meeting the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in the national capital New Delhi.

Last month, Burney had urged the new Pakistani Government to consider converting Sarabjit's death sentence into life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds as he had spent more time than a life sentence on death row in Pakistani jails.

President Pervez Musharraf had earlier rejected his appeal for clemency.

Burney had played a significant role in the release of another Indian Kashmir Singh, after spending 35 years in Pakistani jails.

The day Kashmir Singh was released, Sarbjit's sister Dalbir Kaur had requested Burney to take up the case of her brother. Sarabjit's family claims that his was a clear case of mistaken identity.